May Bloom Day

Ahh, yes, Bloom Day. I’ve been so preoccupied with my gardens that I’ve started talking to myself. “WOW! When they said ‘May be invasive,’ they really meant it!” and “Why did I plant That?”

Genista lydia Bangle is a nearly leafless plant with bright green stems when it is not blooming tiny snapdragon-like bright yellow flowers.

Rosa Crown Princess Margareta
I love these little wild looking roses. They put on a big bloom of enthusiasm, then continue occasionally to bloom all summer. When it gets cool in the fall, they start to get excited and bloom heavily again. Even a light frost will not deter them. I’ve had blooms on the Thanksgiving table from these little roses.

The chive flowers are still hanging on. That short-lived cilantro that reseeded itself, is about to bolt. I’ll plant some more so I will always have it for Mexican dishes. (Ha! As if I had a kitchen to cook in.) The chives are supervising those insecure and clingy spring peas that may or may not reach maturity. A mild spring can turn into a ferocious summer in a day here in Missouri. I love the sage flowers, the bees love it too.

Sage, cilantro, geraniums replacing the lavender chives near the spring peas.

In my garden, sage is grown both a culinary herb and a perennial flower. Sage blooms in the most delicate lavender shade. It’s a must-have herb in the garden with long lasting spiky blooms and an essential ingredient in corn bread dressing or grilled pork chops.

Peonies are blooming. They always remind me of my grandmother and Decoration Day, as she called Memorial day. I would cut a trunk full of peonies, and bring them down to her house Memorial Day weekend. We put the flowers if fruit jars and decorated of family grave sites with the peonies. Some were here when I moved in. Badly overgrown and neglected. Little by little they are looking better. A hardy serving of compost, some bone meal and plenty of mulch has improved their bloom number only slightly. “But they just LOOK better, I keep telling myself.” The bright pink color is an older variety – who knows the variety? The only acceptable solution is to love ‘em and leave ‘em where they are, or replace them with larger and newer varieties, which will take a couple of years to get healthy, well rooted plants to make them selves at home. Peonies always look better when they are weeded and cared for. I imagine, if they are left to grow, they may outlive me.

This tiny yellow flower is arugula that has gone to seed.

Weigela – VariegatedWeigela florida ‘Variegata’ I grow it for the foliage, the flowers are a bonus.

The last of the iris are still beautiful.

An old fashioned Aquilegia (Columbine).

Marigolds

Three things:

1. Buy a Gardener’s Journal – A Ten Year Chronicle of Your Garden, like Lee Valley Tools http://ow.ly/71Bh It’s so big and heavy, I can’t loose it. Now, when I buy a plant, I write down the name, in this book. NOW PLEASE!

2. If anyone at the nursery ever hands you a cute little green plant in a 2 ½ in pot and the label reads “may be invasive.” Smile. Return the plant. Take a step back, turn, and run for your life. Lock your car doors, and check to make sure no one has ‘gifted’ you that cute green plant in a 2 ½ in pot.

3. When you are leaving comments on other garden bloggers bloom day blogs, NEVER, NEVER mention their big bloomers.

And finally, something to share from a southern Missouri gardener: